"Did I accidentally kill any people lately?"
Definitely not! He had not engaged in any funny business ever since he settled on Davute. The Cat Nest where his daughters spent most of their time was no battlefield or executioner's ground either.
So how come Andraste developed such an early affinity towards death?!
"Out of all of the possible evolutionary directions that Yaika could follow, why did she take after Helena?"
He truly couldn't explain why this happened. He seriously suspected that his initial implementation of the companion spirit seed was seriously flawed.
Perhaps he had overlooked a glitch or a flaw that caused his companion spirit seeds to lock in an initial evolution direction far in advance!
"Ugh, I'll have to pay attention to this next time I impart a kid with a companion spirit seed."
Gloriana wanted to have six children in total, and so far she only fulfilled a third of that quota.
With four more kids to go, Ves had to make sure his subsequent kids received more say in how they wanted to develop themselves in the future.
"Put Yaika back, Blinky."
The purple spiritual cat briefly dove into Andraste's head and put the tiny infantile companion spirit back where she belonged.
Ves spent the next few minutes staring at his adorable daughter as she dozed off with no absolutely no concern.
As he recalled how much effort he and Gloriana put into setting their second daughter up to be a fantastic mech pilot, he grew more concerned.
Leaving aside the question whether Andraste would be able to develop the right genetic aptitude to become a mech pilot, Ves might not be happy if she did end up possessing the correct talent.
Due to the MTA's persistent efforts into shaping human culture and perception towards mechs, there were many parents who thought it would be great if their kids were able to pilot mechs!
In the Age of Mechs, there was no legitimate war weapon other than mechs in most parts of human society.
With warships ruled out as permissible options, the only way for states and groups of people to defend themselves and fight for their interests was by fielding lots of mechs.
Given the importance of converting potentates into trained and motivated mech pilots, a lot of states had done a good job at instilling the right values as well as incentives to encourage many parents into sending their potentate offspring to any available mech academies.
Cultivating enough eligible manpower was a vital priority to a state. Although there might not be enough mechs to give every trained mech pilot a job, it was enough to have them in reserve in case a war broke out in the future.
The depletion of the pool of available mech pilots was one of the most common reasons why states lost wars!
While there were certainly risks to turning kids into soldiers who would one day fight on the battlefield, the incentives were quite abundant.
Aside from raising the status of both the future mech pilots and the families that produced them, the salaries and other compensation measures were highly attractive.
Average mech pilots already earned several times the amount of a well-educated civilian in most states!
Elite mech pilots and mech pilots enjoyed drastically higher remuneration than those sums!
So long as these mech pilots managed to survive their tours, they could easily retire in comfort and use their accumulated wealth to invest in a business or buy a big mansion.
Even if they died, their families and heirs would receive rich compensation. This had always been the custom in most states. After all, if the soldiers didn't feel they were being treated fairly by their employers, there was no way to motivate them to fight earnestly on the battlefield.
The maintaining the support and morale of their own mech pilots was a vital necessity to any state or group!
The Larkinson Clan was no different in this regard. As someone who grew up in the Larkinson Family, Ves knew how vital it was to make his own troops feel valued. He had personally ensured that the mech pilots in the clan received even more generous compensation packages than was the norm!
Yet what about Andraste?
"While all of this is good enough to encourage most of the mech pilots in our clan to make use of their talents and fight on my behalf, do I really need to send my daughter to the battlefield as well?"
Ves was different from the rank-and-file members of the clan. Though every Larkinson received generous treatment, they always desired more. Serving in the Larkinson Army was a good way to earn more precious rewards such as valuable augmentations quickly.
"My little girl doesn't have to go through all of that." Ves realized. "I can just buy or make what she needs."
Despite the irrelevance of the existing incentive structure for him and his daughter, a strong part of him still wanted to help his daughter become a successful mech pilot.
Why did he feel this way?
Why would he actively want to push his baby girl to risk her life on the battlefield when there were easily thousands of clansmen who were more than willing to take on this burden?